The State Duma in the first reading adopted a government bill on the creation of a National Dictionary Fund in the Russian Federation

The State Duma in the first reading adopted a government bill on the creation of a National Dictionary Fund in the Russian Federation. We are talking about a publicly accessible portal that will unite the “norms of the modern Russian language” enshrined in classical normative and modern dictionaries. The Russian Language Institute reported that the fund will include at least 33 dictionaries. Some deputies, however, were more interested in ridding the language of Anglicisms in conditions “when the Anglo-Saxons declared war on us to destroy everything Russian.”

The government submitted draft amendments to the law “On the State Language of the Russian Federation” to the State Duma in January 2024. It is proposed to add Art. 4.1 on the creation of the National Dictionary Fund (NDF) – an information system “about the norms of the modern Russian literary language, enshrined in normative dictionaries” and “dictionaries recording information about the development of norms of the Russian literary language.” The fund should become publicly available, and the purpose of its creation is to post on the Internet “information about the norms of the modern Russian literary language.” The operator and customer of the NSF is the Ministry of Education and Science, its powers will be approved by a separate document by the government of the Russian Federation. The creation of the fund will cost the budget 182.3 million rubles, according to the financial and economic justification for the bill.

Chief researcher at the Institute of Russian Language named after V.V. Vinogradov and director of the NSF Maria Kalenchuk previously told Kommersant that the development of the system has been going on since 2019, 33 dictionaries have already been prepared for the fund (mostly from the second half of the 20th – 21st centuries, but there are also books from the late 18th century). According to her, the NSF search system will not only give an answer about the rules of writing and pronunciation of words, but will also tell about the history of changes in these processes (see “Kommersant” dated February 22). Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Denis Sekirinsky said in the State Duma that the NSF will become “a unique source of information about the system of modern language and historical data on its formation over the past 300 years.” The head of the Duma Committee on Culture, Elena Yampolskaya (ER), called the project “long-awaited,” “favorite brainchild,” and part of the system for protecting the Russian language. “If we want to save the language from distortion, it is assumed that there is a standard somewhere,” said the deputy, glad that its creation was “entrusted to high professionals” from the Institute of the Russian Language, and not to “tribune criers.”

Let us remind you that in February 2023 the law on the state language was changed. Now it talks about the need “when using Russian as the state language” to comply with literary norms, checking them with special reference books (they should be developed by a government commission on the Russian language).

And federal authorities should not only “provide state support for the publication of dictionaries, reference books and grammars of the Russian language,” but also promote “the creation of information resources containing information about the norms of the modern Russian literary language.” The NSF should become such a resource.

Deputy Olga Alimova (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) recalled that in 2000 the portal “Gramota.ru” appeared and “successfully operates” (publishes dictionary entries with the ability to check language norms). Ms. Alimova said that the portal “contains approximately everything that is regulated” by the NSF, asking what new things the fund will offer. Mr. Sekirinsky admitted that he had the same question when he first started working on the project. “Gramota.ru” is being created by the Ministry of Digital Development with the support of the same specialists from the Institute of the Russian Language, he continued, but the portal “has much less functionality in terms of the depth of dictionaries and fundamental elaboration.”

Further discussion revolved around ridding the language of anglicisms. Thus, deputy Nikolai Kolomeytsev (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) suggested that the deputy minister “leave the second entrance” of the State Duma and count the foreign signs on the Moscow Hotel and Tverskaya Street. And his fellow party colleague Viktor Sobolev emotionally called for defending the language, “when the Anglo-Saxons declared war on us to destroy everything Russian.” “The language is clogged with words from the most unfriendly countries – the USA, Great Britain… Brand, trend, online, business. Especially business!” – Mr. Sobolev fumed, calling on “to take into account not our words that came from enemies.” However, deputy Anatoly Voronovsky (ER) recalled the times of his service in the navy, clarifying: “All professional words are Dutch and English.”

Mr. Sekirinsky promised that the NSF will allow “in historical retrospect to see the changes that have occurred with the language”: “And the picture will be very indicative. Some words come and go just as quickly. And the Russian language absorbs the strongest and best.” And Mrs. Yampolskaya admitted that even in the expression “National Dictionary Foundation” “there is not a single word with a Slavic root.” “Two of them have a Latin root, one of them has a Greek root,” she warned. “So we can go far.”

But the deputy still called for a fight against “excessive Anglicisms,” recalling the existence of other amendments to the language law, of which she is a co-author. Thus, in November 2023, a group of United Russia deputies introduced a high-profile bill to the State Duma obliging the use of Russian as the state language in “commercial designations,” hoping to rid signs and storefronts “of such inscriptions as coffee, fresh, sale, shop, open.” (see “Kommersant” dated October 25, 2023). Mrs. Yampolskaya expressed the hope that the document will reach consideration at the plenary session of parliament in April 2024. In the meantime, the bill on creating the NSF passed its first reading in the State Duma, and it was adopted unanimously.

Alexander Voronov